A worthwhile series continues with a chamber focus
The Strad Issue: March 2026
Description: A worthwhile series continues with a chamber focus
Musicians: Júlia Pusker (violin) Ditta Rohmann (cello) Csaba Klenyán (clarinet) István Kassai (piano)
Works: Weiner: Violin Sonatas nos.1 and 2; Romanze; Ballade
Catalogue number: NAXOS 8574731
Having released Leó Weiner’s complete orchestral output, Naxos now turns its attention to his early chamber music, often a starting point for his larger-scale works. These pieces, written around the time of the First World War, are attractive and well crafted, at times reminiscent of Fauré and Franck, with the odd Hungarian inflection. The recording is well balanced and upfront.
Aptly, all of the disc’s four performers studied at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy of Music where, under its former name – the Hungarian Academy of Music – Weiner taught for over 50 years.
Júlia Pusker, playing on a loaned 1714 Stradivari, is a persuasive advocate for Weiner’s two violin sonatas (later arranged as concertos). In the First Sonata, premiered in 1912 by no less a team than Carl Flesch and Artur Schnabel, she captivates us in the cheeky fast Waltz and plays the finale’s wild Tarantella with virtuosic intensity.
The shadow of war hangs over the Second Sonata (1918) – the passionate emotion of the First Sonata’s slow movement now replaced with a more subdued, reflective feel and the Mendelssohnian scherzo, played with crisp brilliance, is in a minor key.
Hungarian cellist Ditta Rohmann eloquently captures the yearning quality of the short Romanze and clarinettist Csaba Klenyán enjoys the lush qualities of the Ballade.
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